woman who
admitted to fatally stabbing and robbing a lawyer in a luxury hotel was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Friday, according to reports.
Jamyra Gallmon, 21, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the
Feb. 9 death of DLA Piper attorney David Messerschmitt, 30, at the Donovan Hotel off Thomas Circle in Downtown D.C.
Gallmon’s reputed girlfriend and former roommate Dominique Johnson, 19, received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery in May,
The Washington Post reported.
Prosecutors say the pair planned to rob Messerschmitt after he posted a
Craigslist ad seeking a male sexual partner and Gallmon arranged the hotel room meeting under false pretenses.
The prosecutors, lawyers for the defense and representatives for both the victims and the defendants addressed D.C. Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan before Ryan handed down the sentences on Friday,
WRC-TV reported.
Ryan opted for the maximum 24 years for second-degree murder under sentencing guidelines. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shana Fulton argued she deserved 25 years, the most possible under Gallmon’s plea deal.
“This was not a random robbery. This was calculated and premeditated,” Fulton said, according to the Post. “She stabbed Mr. Messerschmitt seven times. She plunged a knife into him seven times, even in his back, and she left him there in that hotel room to die.”
Messerschmitt’s wife, Kim Vuong, cried in court on Friday and gave her victim-impact statement in a closed session, the TV station reported. She wrote that Gallmon had “stolen” her dreams while asking for a 25-year sentence in testimony she submitted earlier this week, according to the Post.
“I did not understand why he was killed or know who was responsible for it,” Vuong wrote. “All I knew was that on Feb. 9, 2015, my husband did not come home to me. He always came home, but that night he did not. Since then, my world and everything in it has changed.”
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